Articles Books

These articles were selected from "American Heritage" to provide in-depth details missing from general history books. They do not teach 'official history', so expect to have your assumptions challenged by fresh points of view. Good history should be enjoyed like good literature. The two dozen articles can't be easily summarized.

David Hapgood's article on Henry George explains the origin of the "Single Tax", and how this theory evolved from observed facts. Richard Hofstadter's essay seems like advocacy, not history, and is not as good as the surrounding articles. Thurman Arnold's article on the Sherman Anti-Trust Act points out the twin evils of concentrated economic power: high prices due to a lack of competition, and the destruction of local businesses and draining away of local capital. John Garraty reconsiders William Jennings Bryan as a progressive Democrat and a Fundamentalist Christian. John Scott's article on Jane Addams tells how a charity can gain popular support, and then use this for political purposes. Robert Gallagher's interview with Alice Paul explains the need for a federal amendment rather than using state referenda. William Leuchtenburg doesn't tell what bankers, merchants, and manufacturers wanted with the Spanish colonies in the Pacific. Corporate controlled newspapers created "American gullibility about foreign affairs" (p.209). Harold Larrabee tells of the American opposition to imperialism (p.219).

Thomas Bailey lists Woodrow Wilson's skill as a rhetorician ("the war to end wars"). His "Fourteen Points" was a masterpiece of propaganda. Colonel T. N. Dupuy says "the U.S. government, its senior leaders, and its commanders in Hawaii had had sufficient information to be adequately warned that an attack was possible, and had had time to be prepared to thwart or to blunt the blow" (p.235). Charles Mee Jr. provides a nicely balanced interpretation of the Cold War. This continued WWII prosperity built upon deficit spending. Page 269 explains why the use of atomic bombs was not necessary. John K. Galbraith analyzes the causes of the Great Depression after the prosperity of the 1920s. One cause was the bubble in corporate investments, a pyramid of holding companies. The stock market boomed as securities would greatly increase in value even if they never paid a dividend! David Rothman explains how low wages and periodic unemployment created poverty among wage-earners. David Bennett tells of the Townsend Plan and its flawed "value added" sales tax that would have hurt workers. Allan Nevins considers FDR's place in history. His greatness was a product of his situation (p.317); FDR used other men's thoughts (p.318).

Richard Wade analyzes "The American City", and the progress from 1900 to 1970 (p.331). Corruption in the cities reflected a diverse and non-egalitarian society, different from small towns. Suburbs grew from railroads and then automobiles; but they are no more self-sufficient than the cities (p.339). Larry King writes about LBJ and the failure of Vietnam. Was LBJ in control or being controlled (pp.353-5)? John Brooks tries to describe the broad trends of American society and the change in traditional attitudes and values. He makes many assumptions (pp.376-7). Ray Billington's essay indulges in question-begging. His anecdotes are interesting, but lack facts. The 'Epilogue' by Arthur Schlesinger Jr. reminds us of the pessimism of the Founding Fathers (p.392). They feared that the Republic would end a failure due to "commerce, luxury, and avarice". The quote from Woodrow Wilson is funny (p.397). JFK said "there cannot be an American solution to every world problem" (p.399)

Wilhelm Canaris was one of the more obscure (personally) and intriguiging figures at the top of the organizational chart of the government of Germany, 1933-1945. As head of the Abwehr, and Naval Officer, he commanded an important view of activities in Germany almost from its inception until the demise of the Reich. He predicted that he would go down with it, and was correct--like many of high office, he was killed in the waning days of the Nazi Regime. This is sad for historians, for we would have benefitted from the view of a not-so-fervent government official (perhaps on a par with Speer)...for Canaris was no Aryan prototype.

Bassett's book is also must reading for anyone. However, as with the review noted here, it would be a mistake to simply link Canaris with any organized "opposition" for it was never proved he had anything to do with the 20 July affair, or that he was anything more than an opportunist, albeit a seemingly kindly and innocuous one by stature and career.

Although he seemed more preoccupied with affairs of intelligence, he was not without political interest, being a neighbor and one-time mentor of Reinhard Heydrich.

Since Bassett's work is the first major one to appear in 30 years, and he interviewed persons who knew Canaris (e.g., a secretary in 2004) the work is important if not always correct. As a researcher and historian, I would like to see these "interviews" also published--but that is for another day...meanwhile, all material related to the work is recommended reading.

Very good and will help trainning the sales team

One of the greatest conundrums in the engineering field is how to bring more people into the profession. My solution - raise them! You have to start from birth, of course. As an engineer raised by engineers, and raising another generation of them myself, this e-book/article is useful for engineer parents who want to bond with their children and pass on the profession. From fractal pattern prints in the nursery to entertainment for a toddler, we address it all.

This is a book directed specifically at students interested in journalism. It talks about the many aspects of journalism, mainly focussing on print journalism. They explain the five types of news (straight news, analysis, human interest, etc.) and is very well written. Buy this book!

this is a very good book. it is great for lessons. i use it all the time!!!!
:) :)

Jerry Layne Rogers, Sr. -- wrongfully convicted and innocent. From 1989 - 1992, I was his investigator at CCR [The Office of Capital Collateral Representative, a state agency representing death-sentenced persons].

Rogers' case consisted in 1992 of at least 80 boxes of documents, from court files, prosecutor and law enforcement files, trial and evidentiary hearing transcripts, etc. Rogers's case was the largest and most complicated that CCR has ever represented that I am aware of.

The second largest and most complicated was that of Gerald Stano, whose lead attorney during most of the development of his case was Mark E. Olive.

In 1995, Rogers began receiving pro bono representation from the Washington, D.C. law firm Covington and Burling. The result was an unanimous Florida Supreme Court (FSC) 26 page opinion ordering a new trial in Rogers' case due primarily to prosecutorial misconduct, in particular Brady v. Maryland violations.

To read the opinion, go to the FSC website, then at "Public Information", to the recent opinions, to the year 2001, then toward the bottom at February 15, 2001, one will find the FSC opinion.

During the summer of 2002, Rogers was re-convicted, however sentenced to life upon the jury recommendation. Now twice Rogers has been wrongfully convicted.

In 2004, the Florida 5th District Court of Appeal denied relief. The FSC declined to accept jurisdiction and thus denied the petition for review.

His case is pending Federal review.




For those interested in reading the narrowly decided by four to three vote Florida Supreme Court opinions regarding two more death sentenced persons whose innocence is an authentic issue, please go to the FSC website, then go to the recent opinions, then chose the correct year and scroll down to the following two cases:

Roy Swafford: April 18, 2002

Peter Ventura: May 24, 2001


Additionally, the issue in the below cases is DNA testing that proves that Roy Swafford did not rape Brenda Rucker:

Roy Swafford: March 26, 2004 Case Nos. SC03.931 and SC03.1153



Please also read other books about Florida's death row by David von Drehle and Michael Mello - also availabe at Amazon.

This book asks a question in its Introduction setting the tone for the rest of the work: "What structure of human authority is required by divine and textual authority?" If that were the only sentence in the book, it would be worth reading.

For any reader either Jewish, Christian or Moslem, this book is valuable because it teases from Scripture and history a sense of how humans choose to build governmental and judicial systems in response to what they perceive as being mandated or implied as mandated by divine writ; and how opposing voices test those choices of direction.

One words repeatedly comes to mind as I seek to convey a sense of this book's contribution to thought: valuable.

Joey Pigza swallowed the Key is a very good book. It shows how even if you have a problem, if you work hard to help yourself, you can. At some times in the story, it was a little dististing, but at others it was funny. I really liked it, and reccommend it to anyone who has not read it.

By: christine, Alyssa, Jack, And Andrew

This review is based on humanity and it's morays and ethical views from times beginning until now, and what it says is that all abortion is wrong, unless a choice must be made for the safety of the mother, already viable, living and thinking, feeling along with a spirituality and an inert and inward desire to lift one's eyes to the skys and bend one's knees to a "known" entity that we in some circles call "God".
Our inner selves say that this is murder, and our consciences beat us to emotional death if we have to persue one that will save a mother's life, let alone a partial birth abortion, which tears our inner senses apart, and our mind is too raped for us to think that what we are doing is "NOTHING", for we know that by everything we have learned about ethics, morals, spirituality,(and related thought[s]) that, by all we have learned, this is wrong, and so to strike a blow against our inside voice we scar ourselves forever and it will come back to haunt us in one way or another, and studies of the mind and soul (if you will) screams that this is absolutely wrong to the point of self-annihilations, and mental torment that befalls many , even though years and scores of years have passed since the cruel act has been performed and the act was blanketed by an undescriptive title such as the one given the act:"Partial Birth Abortion".
The term "abortion" in and of itself has ripped the hearts and minds apart of a great many offendors of this principle of anti-life for years and will continue to do so for ever, or until we finally stop all forms of abortions to save the human mind, for we may call a child anything that we wish, it is still a viable life and a gift from our progenitors since time's beginning until now and will continue on until we finally see what we have done and take another road to the ends that we murder for.
There is always another way, "if" we choose to take it and study it until we advance to the point where our new thinking has taken us, instead of the low road, we have taken the high road and saved our minds, our psyches and maybe our souls.
Who knows at this time, in our journey along this time line what we are doing, and have done for the sake of "saving life" by destroying it, and destroying it so terribly!
Thank you John Leo, from "Rick of Fourstrings" .